Damien Minton Gallery

Circus

Di Holdsworth’s new assemblages explore themes of the circus. With music-boxes and hand-made mechanisms she has automated vintage toys and marionettes. The works are constructed in old boxes and tins and are reminiscent of carnival automata and arcade games from the past.

Combining circus characters with those from myths, fairytales and popular culture, the cast in Holdsworth’s assemblages includes clowns, aerialists, circus animals, mermaids, Icarus, Little Red Riding Hood, a princess, Superman and the Devil.

Holdsworth juxtaposes notions of fear, danger, desire and sexuality, against innocence, whimsy and wonder. Wind up one of her works and a clown might embrace Little Red Riding Hood or a trapeze artist might spin, dangling by one leg, from a rope above the body of Superman.

Biography

2006-12Nepean TAFE, Drawing Teacher 2008Sydney University,Life Drawing Workshop,Continuing Education 2004-05University of Western Sydney,Lecturer in Drawing 1989-97UWS, Lecturer in Drawing, Painting & Foundation Studies – Undergraduate & Adult Ed. 2000-02Nepean TAFE,Drawing Teacher 1994-96Nepean TAFE, Drawing Teacher

Academic Qualifications

1991Master of Creative Arts University of Wollongong 1988Bachelor of Arts,Visual Arts,UWS(graduated with distinction) 1985Art Certificate,St George TAFE

Awards and scholarships

1991Australian Post Graduate Course Award, University of Wollongong

Solo exhibitions

2012Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney ‘Circus’ 2010Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ 2008Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ 2007Rex-livingston art dealer, Sydney, Music Box Assemblage 2006Rex-livingston art dealer, Sydney, Mechanical photomontage 1993Crawford Gallery, East Sydney 1992Technology Centre, University of Wollongong

Selected group exhibitions

2012 Hello Dollies, Penrith Regional Gallery
17th Miniature Sculpture Show, Defiance Gallery, Sydney
Five Bells: A Visual Ode to Sydney, Damien Minton Gallery2011 6″ Miniature Sculpture Show, Defiance Gallery
The Golden Age, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery2010 Defiant Little Devils, Defiance Gallery, Sydney2009Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
Finalist, Fisher’s Ghost, Contemporary Art Prize, Campbelltown Arts Centre
Finalist, Manning Art Prize (Highly Commended), Manning Regional Gallery, Taree
‘Mini-works’ Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor 2008Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
Postcards III, John Paynter Gallery, Newcastle 2007Another Little Piece of my Heart, Penrith Regional Gallery
Rex-livingston art dealer, Sydney, Group Show 2006Rex-livingston art dealer, Sydney, Group Show 2005Rex-livingston art dealer, Sydney, Group Show 2004UWS, Staff Exhibition, Space YZ, UWS 1996Nepean TAFE Staff Exhibition, Trapezium Gallery 1995Concerns beyond the Perimeter, Sydney Fringe Festival, Nepean Art House 1994Seeing Voices Hearing Visions, Nepean Art House 1993No Angels No Trumpets, Space YZ, UWS 1990Variations, New England Regional Art Museum 1988EMR Gallery, Redfern NSW
Graduation Exhibition, Nepean College of Advanced Education
Images, Penrith Regional Gallery